The City Charter of 1886
A legislative blueprint defining the duties of Seattle's mayor, council, and police as the growing territory formalizes its municipal rule.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The city council shall possess all the legislative powers granted by this act. The mayor is the chief executive officer of the city, and full power and authority is vested in him to execute and enforce the laws and ordinances of the city, to supervise, direct and control the police force and all subordinate officers, and to maintain peace and good order. The chief of police shall be the peace officer of the city and must execute all process issued by the Common Council or any justice of the peace. He shall exercise vigilant control over the police force and maintain the peace and quiet of the city; he shall be the keeper of the city prison, and discharge all other duties the council may prescribe.
“The mayor is the chief executive officer of the city, and full power and authority is vested in him to execute and enforce the laws and ordinances.”
This charter reflects the late 19th-century struggle to centralize municipal power in a rapidly growing, frontier-era Seattle. Many of these foundational roles—the mayor's executive mandate and the administrative oversight of the police force—continue to be defined by the same structural tensions inherent in the modern city charter.
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